Latest Project...I mean obsession...

I love to sew, as those who know me well already know.  I mentioned the idea of making a quiet book a few weeks ago to my mom, and we both went crazy with ideas.  We talked about it a lot on the phone, and swapped email ideas, and googled blogs and did lots of research.  We really liked the idea of basing the pages around primary songs.  I've finally finished planning my perfect quiet book.  I'm really excited. And when I get more done I'll post about it on my sewing blog.  But in the meantime I have to share something that I think is amazing.  AMAZING! 

While my mom and I were chatting about all this, I thought it would be really cool to print the layouts on fabric, like they do at Spoonflower or FabricOnDemand.  It's just kind of pricey, and I don't have the software to really "design" it properly.  But I think the idea of being able to design and custom print your own fabric is really cool.  And then I stumbled across this idea and I was enamored.  You can print on fabric with your home printer! I'm not going to bother rehashing the steps, because the website does a great job.  I obviously wasn't interested in making beanbags (thought it's a cool idea), but in making quietbook pages.  And here is the result so far.  I didn't have white cotton, just some light khaki colored stuff, and I'm cheap so I used it instead, but I still love the result. 

(Please ignore the fact that it is a mirror image photo. Ben took the camera out so I had to take it with our webcam)

For the Popcorn Popping page I'll print little popcorn blossoms and attach velcro and a basket pocket they can be gathered into.  The page opposite is my "I Think the World is Glorious*" , or touch and feel nature page.  It's a picture from my mission in Alaska, and I'm in a field of fireweed (which grows EVERYWHERE up there).  I'm going to sew on cottony clouds and some 3-D silk flowers, maybe a furry animal.  Anyway, you get the idea.

I'm really stoked.  I can't get over that I can print my own pages.  To do the designing, I've just been using microsoft word and paint programs.  I've searched for public domain clipart and then used paint to make it just how I want it and then copied into word so I get it the right size (because I apparently can't do that in paint).  Plus I can add wordart in Word.

I think possibilities for printing your own fabric are incredible.  Granted, you can only print as big as your printer will take, but still!  OH, I'm so excited!

*Funny story about this song.  When I was a little girl I would tell my mom that this was the song I was going to sing on Resurrection morning, only I didn't really (and still don't) have the words for the verse down so I would improvise with "I sing and sing and sing and sing...and sing and sing and sing..." It never ended apparently.